1. What challenges was Terrascope facing before partnering with Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk?

Before partnering with Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk, we faced challenges in disaggregating land-related emissions. Existing emissions factor databases lacked comprehensive breakdowns for Forest, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) emissions, which cover the climate impacts of land-related activities such as land use change and land management. Available emission factors were often limited in granularity and coverage.

This gap hindered our ability to provide the precise and detailed emissions data essential for our agri-food customers to measure their FLAG emissions, to understand the drivers of their climate footprint in-depth, and to implement effective decarbonization strategies.

As such, Agri-footprint FLAG was pivotal for the launch of our FLAG module, which aims to empower enterprises to measure and manage land-related emissions across their operations and supply chains and set FLAG science-based targets.

2. Why did you choose Agri-footprint FLAG?

We chose Agri-footprint due to its reputation as a leading agri-food emissions factor database. They offer exceptional granularity, providing detailed breakdowns of emissions across FLAG components, including biogenic and non-biogenic sources within land use change (LUC) and land management (LM) activities.

Agri-footprint is one of the key data sources we use for emissions measurement at both corporate and supply chain levels, as well as for our FLAG module. We’re also currently exploring the use of Agri-footprint FLAG for our Product Carbon Footprinting (PCF) solution, with the aim of disaggregating FLAG and non-FLAG emissions at the product level.

Additionally, the rapid release of the FLAG breakdown by Agri-footprint, aligned with SBTi FLAG guidelines ahead of other databases, fits with our commitment to providing swift and effective emissions measurement and management aligned to the latest industry standards and regulations for our agri-food customers worldwide.

3. What results have you seen from the FLAG module?  

By leveraging Agri-Footprint FLAG, we’ve dramatically reduced the time needed for measurement of our customers’ FLAG emissions from months to weeks. This puts us in a unique position to assist agri-food companies in setting precise, science-based targets and identifying impactful decarbonization strategies in line with SBTI FLAG and the underlying draft GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance.

Using the FLAG module, we have successfully assisted several leading companies in the food, snacks, and retail sectors in swiftly measuring their FLAG emissions and setting separate targets in line with the latest SBTi guidelines.

One notable example involves a global food ingredient supplier that needed to accurately re-baseline their existing GHG inventory across dozens of countries, thousands of suppliers, and hundreds of facilities in less than 4 weeks. This saved significant time and costs, allowed for strategic resource reallocation, and helped shield the company from reputational damage linked to potential delays or inaccuracies in their SBTi FLAG and non-FLAG submissions. Overall, the FLAG module helped ensure that their climate commitments stayed on track.

Our platform further empowered the global ingredient company to pinpoint critical activities driving FLAG emissions throughout their operations and supply chain — a feat made possible by Agri-Footprint FLAG.